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{
    "id": 1446556,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1446556/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 175,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Oketch Gicheru",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Madam Temporary Speaker, we have also seen the idea of special economic zones in this country, which was well meant by the Kenya Kwanza Government. However, it is not mainstreamed within the economic potential of mining sectors. This will happen if we reinforce the idea that these committees must be put within the county infrastructure. It is also important to look at industrial partnerships within the framework of Public-Private Partnership (PPP), which should again happen within the counties’ infrastructure that those policies must emanate from. Lastly, it is important that local content regulations and implementations take into account the biggest function of economic equality, which is the price of commodities. We must have an interface whereby this particular Bill allows for the price of commodities like minerals such as oil and gas to have an avenue of conversation at the county level. If we do not have that, then people at the local level participating in mining of oil and gas cannot partake on the fair retail price of these commodities. For instance, I do not know how we can come up with a formula of the price of gold in Migori County. I think that also applies to Kakamega County where Sen. Boni comes from. What happens is that there are middlemen who choose to put any price. We do not have a pricing index such as India or Dubai, but use that put by local middlemen in our communities that they suggest for that particular commodity. That must change with the coming of this Bill, so that the communities at the local level lead and champion the regulations and implementation of the pricing mechanism and a tool, which must be akin to what is going on in the global market for those commodities. Madam Temporary Speaker, global market is something that if the local miners and local communities can partake in directly, then it will be more transformational. It will also enable them to create more wealth than leaving it to open and disorganised market. I support this Bill, but with a caveat that the institutional element expressed in it from Clauses 6 to 12 must be relooked with the idea of forming those committees at the county level to empower counties to have true control of these minerals such as oil and gas. Madam Temporary Speaker, I support with those amendments. I thank you."
}